1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for automatically mending warp yarn in which a mending yarn is tied to a broken warp yarn, and the mending yarn is passed through a heddle and a reed.
2. Prior Art
When a warp yarn is broken during weaving operation, a dropper device or the like generates a warp stop signal to stop the loom automatically. Then, an operator picks up or extracts the broken warp yarn from a series of parallel warp yarns, ties a mending yarn to the leading end of the broken warp yarn, passes the mending yarn through the heddle and the reed for thereby mending the broken yarn and sets the loom to be re-started. As mentioned just above, the conventional mending operation is carried out entirely by the manual operations of the operator.
The applicant proposed a method and apparatus for automatically mending warp yarn in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1-192853 to expedite the manual mending operation, which is however not completely automatized.